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What Blogging Has Taught Me

Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you, but by clicking on this link the blogging facade is about to be broken down for you.

I know, I know.. I’m sorry; it’s not all product reviews and photo shoots.

Blogging is hard work. Blood, sweat and tears.

Okay, maybe I’m being a little dramatic. But..

Here’s what blogging has taught me, about myself and about blogging in general.

I’M ADDICTED TO SOCIAL MEDIA

Guilty.

I wrote a post about this before. I’m super addicted to social media: Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin’, Instagram.. utterly and completely obsessed. In a good way, though.

I keep up to date with other bloggers I follow, and I get to see what my friends are up to.

Everything is inspiration.

Don’t judge me.

STAYING FOCUSED IS HARD

I get distracted VERY easily.

You try writing a blog post without any distractions. With Facebook and Twitter at my fingertips, it’s very difficult to keep my attention on my blog, and my blog alone. On that note, finding a focused topic to write about is also a struggle sometimes.

There are so many things I love, but for blogging purposes, it’s best to focus on a few things.

I wish I could write about everything, and I’m sure eventually I could (and let’s face it, I already kind of do), but right now my goal is to find a target audience and go from there. The truth is, I have no idea what I eventually want my blog to be about. All I know, is that my blog is a reflection of who I am.

I guess that means I don’t really know who I am.

I’m okay with that. I’m still young. I’ve got time to figure it out, and until I do I’ll just go through life and enjoy it.

SUCCESS DOESN’T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT

I’ve been actively running and promoting my blog since August 2015.

Do I have millions and millions of followers? Nope.

Do I have a following that’s slowly increasing, day by day? That I do.

It takes a while to build an empire. What’s that saying.. if you build it, they will come?

Let’s go with that.

I’m not running this blog because I want to be famous for blogging; I’m doing it because I love doing it. I love writing and sharing my opinions and having people read what I write and relate with it.

If that, in turn, makes me somewhat popular, cool. That just means more people are reading what I’m writing and they like it. That’s what matters.

SCHEDULES ARE IMPORTANT

I try to pop 2-3 blog posts out a week.

This last week month has been a little bit more difficult – thank you, homework & assignments.

Regardless, I knew that today was my scheduled “blog post” day, so I sat down with my computer, my coffee, and starting writing. I had no idea what today’s post would be so I looked at my list of post ideas I’d written in my bullet journal, and this one seemed to jump out at me.

I’ve been doing this for seven months now, and I like to think that I’ve been doing a pretty good job. But every single thing that I’ve learned in these last seven months has been eye-opening, and one of those things, is that creating a schedule and sticking to it is important.

And yes, I know I need to charge my phone.

HOW TO USE PHOTOSHOP

If you’re a blogger and you plan on being a blogger for a while, learn how to use Photoshop, or any other photo editing software that you like.

It’s really not that tricky once you get the hang of it.

Plus, using your own photos helps keep all of that legal “this-isn’t-my-photo-but-I-hope-no-one-notices” thing out of the way.

If I can do it, you can do it.

KEEP YOUR CHIN UP

Don’t get discouraged if people don’t comment or like your posts, or if your views take a dip one day.

Like I said, success doesn’t happen overnight, but if you’re doing this to be “popular” online – maybe you’re doing it for the wrong reasons?

Pitching post ideas to Huffington Post and HelloGiggles.com is nerve wrecking I’m sure (I haven’t done it – yet!), but just because they say no the first time, that doesn’t mean they’ll say no the second, third or seventeenth time.

Keep your chin up. Keep going. Keep doing what you love, because that should be the only reason you do what you do.

xo.

What has blogging taught you about yourself? Any tips or tricks? Leave me a comment below, I’d love to hear them!

Comments

I’ve been blogging a little while too, and it is really hard…harder than I thought it would be. I’m still struggling with my schedule, and not getting too discouraged when I don’t get a lot of page views. I keep going because I love writing just like you :)

Loved reading this – you have a great writing style! :) I soooo agree with being distracted … oh my gosh, it’s awful! What I need to do is turn off my notifications so I don’t hear the little “ping” when I get a comment on my blog, or someone repins something of mine from Pinterest, or someone likes my pic on Instagram – then I wouldn’t stop what I was doing and check it out. I really need to try harder – I can’t imagine how much more productive I’d be. :) Thanks for sharing!

Thanks so much for this post. I’ve only been blogging for a few months and it’s getting better every day. I do need to get the photo software as I’ve been taking pics with my phone and using the polyvore app. I’m with you though. I do it because I love it and hopefully it will end up doing really well one day. Best of luck to you as well. And you have gained a reader in me :)

I guess I’m still trying to figure out a lot of things, too. I’m also trying to find blog peace and actually love what I write. I would like to gain readers but only if they’ll like what I write and not just because they’re looking to gain exposure. It doesn’t really feel too much like work since I enjoy it so much, but yeah, keeping a schedule has really helped XD I guess you have to be in the right mindset to write!

I love this!! I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s addicted to social media. I have a huge obsession with Twitter and Instagram. They’re my go to social media platforms. The last 30+ minutes of my day is spent laying in bed, finding new people to follow and connect with haha so I guess it’s good from a networking perspective.